with files from - CTV - Sept. 12 11:30 a.m.
A third Asian giant hornet nest has been found, according to a statement from the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
The news comes as the department says it has eradicated the second Asian giant hornet nest of the year, which it found last week.
The department didn't say how many hornets were in the second nest, but said there were four “combs,” photos of which it included in a Facebook post on Saturday.
All of the so-called “murder hornet” nests have been located within a few kilometres of each other in Whatcom County directly south of B.C.’s border with Washington.
The hornets can grow up to five centimetres long and at least one has been spotted this summer in Langley, southeast of Vancouver.
Both B.C. and Washington have extensive monitoring programs to track and locate the invasive species.
- With files from the Canadian Press -
Officials in Washington State say they've located a second Asian giant hornet nest in as many months in Whatcom County, just over the B.C. border.
The latest nest was found southwest of the first one officials encountered this year, which was found in a dead alder tree in rural Whatcom County, east of the border city of Blaine.
That nest was eradicated late last month and had nearly 1,500 hornest inside in various stages of development, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Plans are now being made to eradicate the second nest.
The department says all of the Asian giant hornet incidents in northern Whatcom County have been reported "within a few miles" of each other.
Asian giant hornets are an invasive species and prey on honey bees and other native insects.
Experts say if they establish a population in B.C., they may pose a serious threat to our beekeeping and commercial pollination industries, which in turn will have serious consequences for local agriculture.
They typically nest in underground cavities, or above ground in tree stumps of forested areas.
Also known as "murder hornets," the invasive insects were first found in B.C. in 2019, when a small nest was eradicated in Nanaimo.
Since then, there have been no additional sightings of the hornets on Vancouver Island, though several dead specimens were found in the Fraser Valley last year.
The latest nest in Washington State will be the third to be eliminated by U.S. officials.
With files from CTV News Vancouver's Regan Hasegawa